Blood Stains and Marigolds

》EIGHT《

Dipper didn't understand why death hurt so much. Wasn't the pain supposed to go away after you died? Why did he still feel the stabbing in his chest and the flowers in his lungs? Was this his eternal afterlife? Forced to be forever choking on flowers because he couldn't admit his true feelings?

It was then, that Dipper realized that his eyes were closed. He slowly opened them and found that the afterlife looked familiar.

Why does purgatory look like Ford's lab?

A voice cut through the blurred familiar haze.

"-ipper?" The voice said.

"G-God?" Dipper replied, though it barely even came out.

"Dipper? Can you hear me?" The voice of God spoke again.

Dipper focused on the voice and realized the voice was familiar too.

And that's when he understood.

He wasn't dead. He wasn't in purgatory. And God, if there was one, wasn't speaking to him.

"G-Great Uncle Ford?" Dipper managed. He turned his head and his Great Uncle came into focus.

"Wh...What happened?" Dipper asked, his voice barely even a whisper.

"You collapsed, likely from lack of oxygen. You're...um...friend found you and we ran into him panicking when we arrived at the school." Ford said. Dipper nodded absent-mindedly then froze.

"Which friend?" Dipper asked quickly, though it took a minute for Ford to realize what he had said.

"You don't have many friends kid, who do you think?" Stan grumbled. Ford shot him a dirty look.

"B-Bill!? Is he here!? Did he see!?" Dipper asked quickly.

"No, he's upstairs. We asked him to step out until you woke up. He didn't like it, but we told him it was important." Ford said.

"Did he see anything?" Dipper asked again. Dipper tried his best to think back to the moment in the bathroom. Had he flushed the petals?

"No, he found you unconscious with blood leaking out of your mouth, but no petals. He almost fought Ford when he said that we weren't going to take you to a hospital." Stan said. Dipper let out a sigh of relief. His secret was still safe.

"Do you know what happened?" Dipper asked again.

"From what I can tell, you were coughing too much up at once and it blocked your airway." Ford said, "I managed to unblock your airway, without doing any surgery. So that's still up to you, but at this point..." Ford trailed off, glancing at his twin.

"It's either get the surgery within the next day or two, confess and hope he feels the same, or die." Stan said, sighing.

"I thought I had more time..." Dipper trailed off.

"It's progressing at lot faster than we originally thought." Ford said.

"I...I know he doesn't feel the same way..." Dipper said sadly, tears unknowingly falling down his face.

Stan and Ford exchanged a look.

"Kid...I don't want to assume anything but the way he was worrying so much about you...well it wouldn't be so farfetched to say he might like you back." Stan said. Dipper shook his head sadly.

"Even if a small percentage of him did, he has a girlfriend. She's a good person too. I couldn't do that to them..." Dipper said.

"You'll have to decide by tomorrow night. But it's either confession or surgery or...well it's your choice but...so I'm not going to force you to do anything, but..." Ford trailed off.